Jonathan Meese gets the chop despite promising the Wagners a Nazi imagery-free production.

The Bayreuth Festival has decided to axe Jonathan Meese as director for its 2016 production of Wagner’s sacred music drama Parsifal. The controversial freelancer has been in trouble on several occasions in the past for his use of challenging political, social and sexual imagery, and in particular the swastika.

The announcement came last Friday that Meese’s concept would not be affordable. Commercial director Heinz-Dieter Sense said that there had been “financial problems from the very beginning with the set and costumes”. “The result would be a significant overspend on the available budget,” he said. “This is not acceptable to the Bayreuther Festspiele.”

Only last year, Katharina Wagner, the composer’s great-granddaughter, described Meese as “one of the greatest German artists”. When asked if one should play with swastikas, she replied: “No. And I don’t think Jonathan Meese plays in a bad way with such symbols.” But she denied there would be a clause in his contract prohibiting him from using Nazi symbols. “There is still no contract, but a verbal assurance that we made public with his permission,” she said. It now appears, however, that despite theses assurances the Festival have decided to part company with the director.

Meese, who is a painter, theatre director and performance artist, has a chequered history with the German authorities and artistic community. In 2013 he was found not guilty by a court in Kassel of performing the Nazi salute as an act of public provocation. The case had been brought against Meese after he was accused of twice making the salute at an event called “Megalomania in the Art World”. His lawyers had maintained that the German constitution protects artistic freedom and the court agreed that the gesture had indeed been a part of an “interview-turned-art performance”. Meese also outraged an audience in Mannheim when he performed a simulated oral sex act on a plastic dummy of an alien, which was adorned with a swastika.

When asked who would be responsible for the direction, stage design and costumes for Parsifal the Festival admitted they were not yet sure. The musical director however will be Festival favourite Andris Nelsons.

Get Limelight's free weekly round-up of music, arts and culture.